Suburban movers and shakers

• Skokie-based accounting firm MichaelSilver announced the appointment of Laurie Kaplan, CPA, and John D. Poulopoulos, CPA, as partners.

Joining the firm in 1994, Kaplan is a Certified Public Accountant with more than 25 years of experience in providing tax consulting and accounting services. She is a distinguished speaker and serves as the firm's employee benefit plan specialist, assisting clients with plan selection, design, setup, and administration. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a B.S. in accountancy. Kaplan is a member of the Illinois CPA Society and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Poulopoulos began his career with the firm in 2002, upon college graduation. He is a Certified Public Accountant with more than 15 years of accounting and assurance experience. John oversees audits, review, and compilation engagements; manages audits of employee benefit plans; and provides accounting and tax consulting services. John is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago holding a B.S. in Accountancy. He is a member of the Illinois CPA Society and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. John grew up in Bradenton,

• Brian Hagene, CPA, CGMA, has been promoted to partner at Wheaton-based Mathieson, Moyski, Austin & Co. Accountants and Advisors. Hagene has more than 20 years of accounting experience and has worked in public accounting as well as in private industry as a controller and director of office operations. At MMA & Co. he works primarily with owners of growth-oriented businesses, assisting them with financial and tax needs. He has a bachelor's degree in accounting from Eastern Illinois University and is a member of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), the Illinois CPA Society (ICPAS) and the Chicagoland Associated General Contractors (AGC).

• Ice Miller LLP announced Michael Chabraja has joined the firm as a partner in its tax exempt group. Chabraja concentrates his practice on representing large trade associations and other nonprofit entities in a variety of risk management issues. He provides advice on matters relating to antitrust, governance, intellectual property and member disputes for nonprofit organizations, including professional societies and trade associations. Prior to joining Ice Miller, he was a partner at an international law firm where he maintained a litigation practice and developed a special concentration on the representation of nonprofit organizations. Chabraja received his juris doctor from the University of Illinois College of Law and is admitted to practice in Illinois.

• Ice Miller LLP announced Heather Renee Adams, of counsel, has joined the firm's labor, employment and immigration group. Adams is a business-oriented attorney who regularly advises and represents clients in high-stakes whistle-blower actions and various other areas of employment law before the United States Supreme Court, state and federal appellate courts, federal district courts and administrative agencies, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and various other state employment and labor agencies. Prior to joining Ice Miller, Adams worked in Chicago at a national employment law boutique firm. In 2012, Adams earned her juris doctor from DePaul University College of Law. While in law school, she was the managing editor of the DePaul Rule of Law Journal and completed a judicial externship for the Honorable Franklin U. Valderamma in the Circuit Court of Cook County.

• Darwin Realty announced that Marty Mikaitis has recently joined the firm as an associate in its Elmhurst office. Mikaitis will work on a full range of brokerage services including tenant, buyer, and ownership representation, build-to-suit projects and land development. Mikaitis also works on investment analysis, acquisition and disposition services, primarily in the I-55 South corridor and the I-80 submarket.

Prior to joining Darwin, Mikaitis worked in financial markets as a sales trader, brokering and analyzing index options and futures. He holds bachelor's degrees in finance and accounting from Loras College.

• Signature Bank in Rosemont named Jim Bolman as senior vice president of commercial banking. Bolman has more than 25 years of experience in banking, focused primarily on the Chicagoland and Wisconsin markets. At Signature Bank, he will provide strategic counsel and a highly-personalized customer experience to privately held, middle-market companies. Bolman came to Signature Bank from MB Financial Bank. He looks forward to assisting clients for the long-term at a locally owned and independently operated Chicago-based commercial bank.

• The Scottish Home and Caledonian House, now collectively known as Caledonia Senior Living and Memory Care in North Riverside, welcomes Siân Stevens as chief operating officer. Stevens joins the executive leadership team of the first and longest running 501c3 charity in Illinois, following the completion and stabilized occupancy of its' innovative and award winning new memory care residence, the Caledonian House. She previously served as vice president of marketing and development for Chicago Methodist Senior Services. Her background in the field of aging services includes working for the Kendal Corp., a system of 13 communities founded in Pennsylvania. Stevens helped improve occupancy at several of Kendal's East Coast communities as well as successfully reopening the Admiral at the Lake on Chicago's lakefront.

• CCTY Bearing, a manufacturer of bearings and bearing assemblies in Lake Zurich, has hired Corey Helgeson as an engineer. Helgeson will work with the sales teams designing and selecting bearings for the agricultural, material handling and construction markets. Helgeson graduated from the University of Illinois with a major in mechanical engineering. During his college career, he secured three internships that provided insight on the importance of communication during the design process, as well as managing input from multiple sources. He also volunteered with SOAR: Student Opportunities for After-School Resources to help students in grades 2-5 with their homework and literacy.

• Inland Mortgage Capital LLC, a private lender specializing in intermediate-term mortgages for value-added commercial real estate, announced the appointment of Eugene Rutenberg as senior vice president of loan origination. Rutenberg will be responsible for all facets of Inland Mortgage Capital's commercial real estate bridge loan origination for the western United States. Throughout Rutenberg's professional career, he has closed more than $300 million of complex debt and equity transactions. Prior to joining Oak Brook-based Inland Mortgage Capital, he served as a director of Continental Partners, where he was responsible for sourcing and placing commercial real estate debt and equity for all property types with sources including life companies, CMBS conduits, banks and private lenders. Rutenberg holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and has a California real estate license.

• Cozen O'Connor law firm welcomes Stephanie A. Nashban to its Global Insurance Department. A former partner with Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, Nashban joins as a member and will work out of the Cozen O'Connor Chicago office. Nashban brings to the firm more than 15 years of experience as an insurance industry litigator, representing global insurers involved in a range of complex insurance coverage and professional liability disputes. Her track record includes litigating liability coverage cases - in state and federal court - that involve director and officer liability, errors and omissions liability, and employment, environmental, and commercial general liability issues. Prior to joining Lewis Brisbois, Nashban served as associate deputy counsel for About.com and corporate counsel for Educational Design, Inc. She earned her J.D. at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and her undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin.

• International design firm Ware Malcomb announced Christina Piper has joined the firm as studio manager, interior architecture and design for the downtown Chicago office. Piper will be responsible for the leadership and growth of Ware Malcomb's downtown Chicago office. The firm has an additional office in the Chicago metro area located in Oak Brook.

Piper brings more than 13 years of experience in all facets of corporate interior design. Having worked across the country and internationally, Piper's expertise includes corporate interior architecture and design projects as well as health care, hospitality and higher education design. Piper holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Interior Design from Purdue University. She is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Accredited Professional, a member of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA), National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) certified, and has taught as an Adjunct Faculty Member at The Illinois Institute of Art - Chicago.

• Lee & Associates of Illinois in Rosemont announced Steve Bass has been promoted to Executive Vice President. Bass joined Lee & Associates of Illinois in 2007 and specializes in landlord and tenant representation. Throughout his career, he has developed a reputation of serving his client's best interest and providing exceptional results. Bass currently assists and advises multiple corporate and institutional ownerships on their distribution and industrial space, totaling more than 3 million square feet. He also works with local and corporate users on tenant representation projects in the greater Chicago area. He has been a licensed real estate broker in Illinois since 2000. He is a member of the Association of Industrial Real Estate Brokers (AIRE) and has been named a CoStar Power Broker.

• Principle Construction Corp. in Rosemont announced Matthew Cotherman has joined the firm as a project manager. Cotherman will be providing direction for several projects, including General RV's Parking Lot expansion in Huntley, a 16,500 square foot expansion in Woodridge, a new 63,578 square foot manufacturing and office facility in Elmhurst and a 39,700 square foot tenant improvement in Buffalo Grove. Cotherman has worked in the construction industry or more than 16 years, most recently as a project manager in the Chicago office of a Japanese construction company. He has worked as a construction manager or superintendent for several companies throughout Illinois and the Midwest and has even worked as a self-employed construction manager on projects in Chicago, New York and Las Vegas. Cotherman holds a bachelor's degree in building construction management from Purdue University. He completed a 30-Hour OSHA Certification Renewal and has served as a member of the Green Building Committee and the International Safety and Quality Control Committee.